“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” - George W. Bush

Sunday, August 31, 2014

While the US puts together a coalition to free some towns and Villages from ISIS, The Thieves of Tel Aviv decide to steal some villages for their own

Once again, Netanyahu and his right wing cabal take advantage of the United States while the US deals with problems in the Middle East and Russian aggression in Ukraine. The US cannot unbridle itself fast enough from the strategic liability and our absurd obsession with a rogue apartheid regime in Israel

The United States sees Israel's announcement on Sunday of a land appropriation for possible settlement construction in the West Bank as "counterproductive" to peace efforts and urges the Israeli government to reverse the decision, a State Department official said.

"We have long made clear our opposition to continued settlement activity," the US official said. " This announcement, like every other settlement announcement Israel makes, planning step they approve and construction tender they issue is counterproductive to Israel's stated goal of a negotiated two-state solution with the Palestinians."

"We urge the government of Israel to reverse this decision," the official said in Washington.

138 comments:

US airstrikes and British, French and Australian aid assist the advances against Isis

Martin ChulovThe Guardian, Sunday 31 August 2014 15.06 EDT

US airstrikes near a Shia Turkoman town north of Baghdad have cleared the way for militiamen and Iraqi troops to rescue 12,000 residents from jihadis who had besieged them for more than two months.

The jihadis from the extremist group Islamic State (Isis) had partially withdrawn from the outskirts of Amerli, around 110 miles north of Baghdad, when paramilitaries and Iraqi forces attacked around dawn on Sunday. The attack came hours after US jets had pushed further south into Iraq than at any time in the last three weeks when they have been attacking insurgent positions in support of the Kurds. Aid was also air dropped to Amerli by British, French and Australian aircraft.

RAF Hercules aircraft dropped 14 tonnes of food and water on Amerli on Saturday night, the defence secretary, Michael Fallon, said as he confirmed that Britain is keeping open the option of joining US air strikes against Isis forces.

The Iraqi forces were heavily backed by Kurdish peshmerga troops and Shia militiamen, who have been at the vanguard of most clashes in central Iraq ever since Isis overran more than one third of the country in mid-June.

The militias have been particularly active in areas of high Shia populations, or where Shia religious sites have come under threat. The residents of Amerli were all Shia Turkomans. They had been unable to escape from the town, which had been cut off from water and electricity supplies. The extremists had vowed to kill them if they did not convert to their puritanical version of Sunni Islam.

The successful rescue of Amerli marks perhaps the only time that Iraqi forces, even with strong support, have won a significant clash against Isis, since it took over Mosul, Tikrit, and most of western Iraq. Peshmerga forces, long considered a more competent fighting force, even without a unified command, also withered under an Isis onslaught when the group swept through the Nineveh plains toward Irbil from 8 August.

The extremists' momentum was stopped by US jets, which have now bombed more than 115 targets in northern Iraq. The air strikes allowed peshmerga and Iraq forces to win back the Mosul Dam, which had been seized by Isis, and led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of members of the Yazidi sect, who were helped off a mountain range by Kurdish militias that crossed into Iraq from Syria.

Nevertheless, Washington has continued to insist that its air support will not be open-ended. Barack Obama has previously said US strikes are only to support US officials in Irbil. The attacks on Isis near Amerli were the first time he had authorised hits outside northern Iraq.

Baghdad has been demanding similar US support to protect the capital from Isis's attempt to encroach from the western and southern city limits. However, Obama has refused to authorise air missions without an inclusive central government being formed. The new prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, has only days before a constitutional deadline expires to announce an administration, which he has spent the past three weeks trying to cobble together from competing sects and interests.

The drawn-out negotiations continue to raise questions about the viability of Iraq within its current borders. Of particular concern to Iraqi and regional leaders will be whether the country's Sunnis, who were marginalised when Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003, and have remained estranged from the power base for most of the time since, will be re-empowered by a political process.

The Kurds of the semi-autonomous northern region also remain unsure that a new central government will represent their interests. Relations between the Sunnis and Kurds and the former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki had been toxic by the time that Isis advanced. The dramatic period since has exposed the feebleness of Iraqi institutions, including the military, and the strength that sect-based militias maintain within the country's fractured body politic.

The United States has criticised Israel’s announcement of a land appropriation for possible settlement construction in the occupied West Bank as “counterproductive” to peace efforts, and urged the Israeli government to reverse the decision.

Israel laid claim to nearly 1,000 acres (400 hectares) in the Etzion settlement bloc near Bethlehem, a move which an anti-settlement group termed the biggest appropriation in 30 years and a Palestinian official said would cause only more friction after the Gaza war.

“We have long made clear our opposition to continued settlement activity,” a State Department official said. “This announcement, like every other settlement announcement Israel makes, planning step they approve and construction tender they issue is counterproductive to Israel’s stated goal of a negotiated two-state solution with the Palestinians.”

“We urge the government of Israel to reverse this decision,” the official said in Washington.

Israel Radio said the step was taken in response to the kidnapping and killing of three Jewish teenagers by Hamas militants in the area in June, one of the sparks for the seven-week war in Gaza that left more than 2,000 people dead.

The notice published on Sunday by the Israeli military gave no reason for the land appropriation decision.

Peace Now, which opposes Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank, said the appropriation was meant to turn a site where 10 families now live adjacent to a Jewish seminary into a permanent settlement.

Construction of a major settlement at the location, known as Gevaot, has been mooted by Israel since 2000. Last year the government invited bids for the building of 1,000 housing units at the site.

A local Palestinian mayor said Palestinians owned the tracts and harvested olive trees on them.

Israel has come under intense international criticism over its settlement activities, which most countries regard as illegal under international law and a major obstacle to the creation of a viable Palestinian state in any future peace deal.

Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, called on Israel to cancel the appropriation. “This decision will lead to more instability. This will only inflame the situation after the war in Gaza,” Abu Rdainah said.

The Obama administration has been at odds with Netanyahu over settlements since taking office in 2009.

After the collapse of the last round of US-brokered peace talks, US officials cited settlement construction as one of the main reasons for the breakdown, while also faulting the Palestinians for signing a series of international treaties and conventions.

Israel has said construction at Gevaot would not constitute the establishment of a new settlement because the site is officially designated a neighbourhood of an existing one, Alon Shvut, several kilometres down the road.

JERUSALEM — Israel laid claim on Sunday to nearly 1,000 acres of West Bank land in a Jewish settlement bloc near Bethlehem — a step that could herald significant Israeli construction in the area — defying Palestinian demands for a halt in settlement expansion.

How can one who declared of theire own by stealing anothers property, is this rules mention bythe Holly Bible, and why are the west and US dumped or blind, because there's no one clear solutions on the christianity, when the Iraq former president sadam had occupied the Quwait, the world was alarmed, at the same time Israle can do anything as they want in Gaza. We can find the difference between the followers of Holly Bible or Quran, according to theory of Islam, if anybody who steals a inch of anothers property, who will wears the firewings on his neck in another world.﻿

The land belonged to the Ottoman Turks for four hundred years before it was taken by the Brits. Landlords owned the land as large estates, generally, under the Ottomans. Tenants have not title to the land they rent or roam.

Under International Law, Britain could and did dispose of its Mandate as it saw fit. Among things found fit was the creation of a Jewish state.

The newly formed UN agreed and Israel was founded as the Jewish state. Contrary to theirs terms of admission to the UN the Arabs refused to abide by the UN's decision and went to war with Israel. The Arabs lost and armistice lines were agreed. What was not agreed quite specifically was that the armistice lines would have the effect of borders or boundaries.

Other wars were fought and lost by the Arabs and other armistice lines were drawn. Again, quite specifically these lines were denied the force of boundaries or borders.

After the passage of 20 years, boundaries and borders are no closer to reality than they were in 1949. Those armed men who control Israel's neighboring Arabs still insist on annihilating the Jewish state. See speech from Qatar by the head of Hamas last Friday.

It is now time for Israel to determine her own destiny. That destiny, in my opinion, is the incorporation of Judea, Samaria, and all of Jerusalem under Israeli law. All PA military organizations (in violation of a previous agreement, 1995), paramilitary organizations, and citizens will be disarmed. Those wishing to become Israeli citizens may make application. Those not found guilty of violent crimes against Israelis and/or Arabs shall become citizens. Israeli law will be the law of the land. Democracy will be the political system.

What is "Occupation"Sun Aug 31, 11:51:00 PM EDTThe Thieves of Tel Aviv decide to steal some villages for their own.

I long considered a two state solution. That, to my mind, is an impossibility. Israel should handle Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem as it did the Golan: bring it under Israel law and offer citizenship to Arab residents. Gaza should be ceded back to Egypt.

No, but they can control Gaza and thereby control the Muslim Brotherhood both in Gaza and the Sinai. Strategically, control of Gaza gives Egypt far better control of events in Egypt proper and the Sinai. Egypt will be able to handle Hamas more firmly than Israel. Its paternal firmness will be accepted by the UN and its allied Arab States.

A common definition of terrorism is the systematic use or threatened use of violence to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change.

The reason Hamas is on the US terrorist list is that they meet the broad definition of a terrorist group and they do not confirm with US policy. This is to a degree an arbitrary list. Otherwise, why would Ghaddafi and Libya be on the US list one day and off it the next. As for Canada and the EU, I would say the same criteria applies. We see the subjectivity of the term terrorist in the fact that both Egypt and Saudi Arabia call the MB a terrorist organization while the US does not. And we have to ask, why aren't the leaders of Saudi Arabia designated a terrorist group when they finance terror and spread a philosophy of terror throughout the world? Is it simply because they say they are against terror? Or is it because they are an ally of the US?

Rhetorical questions.

Here is another.

Look again at the broad definition of terrorism?

A common definition of terrorism is the systematic use or threatened use of violence to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change.

Regarding the subject of the current stream, would the forced relocation of a population by the military of an occupying nation be considered a terrorist act? It seems to fit with within the broad definition. Would collective punishment, the burning down of family homes of the relatives of accused terrorist in order 'to make a point' for instance, itself be considered a terrorist act?

Is terrorism a matter of degree, or the form that it takes, or who does it, or who defines it?

A wave of spontaneous joy has swept through northern Idaho as the University of Idaho Vandal football team returns from a road trip without a loss. This is the first time this has happened in the last 16 road trip games. The 17th road loss will have to wait until the next road trip......and will then set an all time school record of 17 straight road trip loses.

As a Cuban American, I will never understand what it's like to grow up black in the U.S. As the son of a very responsible father, and the dad of 3 wonderful sons, I do understand the importance of a father in young man's life.

With all due respect to the "race hustlers", the "grievance crowd" and the black left still living in the 1950s, Ferguson is not about race, racism, or terrible white people.

Ferguson is really about something awful happening in black America, something that no politician peddling "hope and change" can fix.

Linda Chavez quotes Jason Riley's new book and some statistics that the left can no longer "race card" away:

In 2012, blacks made up 38.5 percent of all persons arrested for violent crimes and 51.5 percent of those under 18 arrested for such crimes, but they constituted only 13 percent of the population.

And even accounting for the possibility or likelihood of bias in arrests, the conviction rates are similarly stark. One Bureau of Justice Statistics study from 2002 concluded that when the race of the person committing homicide was known, blacks committed 51 percent of homicides.

Riley’s book discusses why these depressing statistics stem not simply from poverty or prejudice, but from cultural changes that have occurred in the black community and the unintended consequences of liberal efforts to blame everything on poverty and prejudice.

Much of Riley’s discussion has to do with what has happened to black culture. He describes the pernicious effect of even middle-class black youngsters eschewing proper diction and devotion to schoolwork.

In one study of fairly affluent kids in an Ohio suburb, Riley reports that researcher John Ogbu, a Nigerian-born anthropologist and Berkeley professor before his death in 2003, found that “black kids readily admitted that they didn’t work as hard as whites, took easier classes, watched more TV and read fewer books.”

But, of course, the major problem in the black community that accounts for so much of the disparity in achievement and criminal behavior is that more than seven in 10 black children are born to single women and will spend much of their lives with no father present.

If we want to have an honest conversation about race, we need to begin here. Riley is not afraid to confront this issue or any other.

As the conversation on race in America continues, let’s hope his voice gets a hearing."

Yes, let's have an honest conversation about black young men growing up without fathers in the Fergusons of America. It is the root of the problem in our inner cities!

Of course, we can not erase or overlook the reality that young black men were mistreated by police in the past.

At the same time, there is something terrible happening in inner city districts run by the Democrat Party.

Because I am a black conservative, someone wrote asking me this great question.

“What is it that compels some black men and women to cling to, and follow people like Sharpton, Jackson, Wright, Obama, Spike Lee, Black Panthers, Holder, etc.?”

I have pondered the same question. Some black folks embrace victim status because it provides cover for their laziness and irresponsible lifestyles. Black Judases preach a false, evil gospel of victimhood-ism for profit. Some blacks are racist, pure and simple.

I believe that a majority of black Americans simply have not been exposed to unfiltered conservatism – to blacks articulating how blessed they are to be born in the greatest land of opportunity on the planet.

Ironically, all of the blacks who are given big microphones to tout the horrors of being black in America are wealthy. The MSM and Democratic Party viciously and relentlessly block any and all patriotic black voices from the main stage – that is, anyone touting achieving success and wealth the old-fashioned way, via education, hard work, and morally right choices. And we know they attempt to silence such voices because their mission is not to empower blacks, but rather to further their big-government socialist/progressive agenda.

Now that America is burning in the flames of racial tension and polarization, it is crucial that Republicans/conservatives finally reach out to black America. I am not suggesting that they offer blacks a Democrat-lite, "America sucks and is somewhat racist, so we will lower standards and give you free stuff" message. Heaven forbid.

I am talking about taking a pedal-to-the-metal conservative message to black America, boldly articulating conservatism's virtues and why it is the best for all Americans. Why it is the most direct route to success.

While I have no problem with packaging our message to better connect with diverse audiences, our rock-solid conservative principles must remain intact. Republicans must reject using the Democrats' insidious tactic of dividing Americans into victimized voting blocs (blacks, women, Hispanics, and so on). After convincing various groups of Americans that they are victims, the Dems request their votes to use as protection money to keep their white racist sexist Republican/conservative enemies at bay. It is disgusting and evil.

A young black college student worked on Tea Party candidate Joe Carr's U.S. Senate campaign for college credit. The black youth told me that he realized he is conservative. That's what I am talking about: giving blacks an opportunity to hear our inspiring be-all-you-can-be feel-good message. Ronald Reagan's speeches always made me feel good about myself and my country.

Several years ago, I produced many of the Volusia County Florida Republican Executive Committee annual Lincoln dinners. I was one of two blacks on the committee. I was always thinking of ways to invite and involve more blacks. A few outspoken voices said, “Why bother? They are going to vote for the Democrats no matter what we do.” I have experienced that same defeatist mindset in the national GOP leadership.

Using my background from working in the Creative Services Department of a major TV station, I designed a campaign to reach out to blacks titled “Reach Your Dreams.” My campaign included touring the black community, with music and conservative minority speakers telling their stories of how they achieved their American dreams.

GOP officers consistently shot my idea down. “Why bother?” They thought it would not produce enough votes to make it a wise financial investment. I argued that it was not totally about producing votes. It was the moral and right thing to do.

Well, the GOP's chickens have come home to roost for allowing the Democrats' lie that America and Republicans/conservatives are racists to go unchallenged. Oh my gosh, did I just quote that evil man, Rev. Jeremiah Wright?

To spread Christianity, Romans 10:14 says:

“And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”

I wish to apply this same wisdom to spreading our gospel of conservatism. Blacks cannot embrace the liberation of conservatism without hearing about it.

My dad has been a Christian preacher for over 50 years. Little did I know that God was preparing me for such a time as this – appointed to spread the gospel of conservatism to those suffering, lost, and enslaved by liberalism.

Bottom line: we conservatives must find a way to bring our good news to black Americans. It is the moral and right thing to do for America.

I disappear for a day to take my eldest child to start at an out of town University and a load of verbiage has spewed forth here. A few observations:

Bob, as is normal for you, you attribute a position to me and think you know it is the case because of my posts. I would like you to go find a comment where I stated the cop in Ferguson was guilty. You won't find it but I watched you form that opinion of me. You've also been squawking about Hamas being a Terrorist organization and asking WHY? WHY? The answer is easy to find but the tougher answer that needs to be supplied by you is what relevance does that have to our discussions here?

Rat, you various persona's do not have unique points of view. They are all the same hence we refer to you as your original moniker - rat. You are increasing living in a fantasy world ironically appearing to the rest of us like your nemesis Bob does.

WiO, the recent land grab by Israel deals highlights the lie in your old propaganda line that 'Israel buys the land fair and square'. Now you are back to your equivalency argument which is stupid.

Allen, if Israel were to annex all of Judea and Samaria granting the inhabitants full citizenship a number of problems would arise: How would the demographics work out and what kind of representation in Parliament, given the Israeli parliamentary system, would the Palestinians have? I'm sure the numbers, in the rough, are out there. Also, how would Israel deal with the international condemnation for such a large annexation while dealing with the network of segregated settlements now in existence - Israel in that form would be easily identified as an apartheid state. Egypt , of course, would refuse Gaza leaving the problem intact.

Deuce, Rufus, I am surprised that you fail to see that the current Iraqi government is not an inclusive one. It is dominated by the Shia and it is unlikely to be able to form a broader coalition of sects because the Sunni are simply not represented at all proportionally. To the best of my knowledge most of the Sunni areas refused to participate in the elections, never ran candidates, and now with IS happening are unlikely to do so. I see no way they can be included in the near term in the Iraqi government. Rufus, you are living in a fantasy world, much akin to Bob's, thinking that IS is 10k guys 'different' than the Sunni locals. I've seen no evidence of that and evidence to the contrary.

Ash, your hatred of the United States, and the U.S. Military is such that it would have translated into leaving 40,000 Yazidi men, women, and children on a mountain to die of thirst and hunger rather than having the USAF drop food, and supplies.

I'm not sure that your judgment can be trusted on things, U.S. or Middle East.

Ash, I agree you didn't say outright that the cop was guilty. You said, IIRC, rather in the negative Bob, cops and whites will automatically support the white cop. The implication I came away with was that you feelings on the matter were similar to those you had about Zimmerman.

You may be progressing under heavy tutoring by myself.

Rufus seems to have dropped the subject, seeing the writing on the wall.

WiO, the recent land grab by Israel deals highlights the lie in your old propaganda line that 'Israel buys the land fair and square'. Now you are back to your equivalency argument which is stupid.

Ash, as you sit on your "appropriated" lands of Canada I question what deed or right do you have to live there.

The current "land grab" that Israel has started was lands always viewed as Israeli in any final settlement.

Of course there are historic claims from the 1920's that date the purchase of these land by the Jews. Of course multiple slaughter of the Jews by the Arabs are a fact... Of course the lands of the current situation are not "villages" but fallow lands. Since BEFORE 1967 these lands have been in the plans to be developed.

And to top it off, the lands that have been "cleared" for development are in the exact area that the palestinians used to bury the 3 executed Jews (one American btw).

Nothing tells the arabs better than land development by the Jews that you cannot murder us, drive us out and scare us than building.

BUILD BABY BUILD

So sit, in your home in Canada, look across the border of at the nation you ran away from, and remember you are a colonial occupier that has ZERO historic ties to the lands....

In your mind, your nation, Israel, can do no wrong. Your nation, Israel, regardless of where you domicile, is living on borrowed time. Israel is dependent politically on the US. There is no second. Lose the US and you lose. The Arabs have an expression that says arrogance diminishes wisdom. Your arrogance leads you to believe that your hold on US favorability is unshakeable. It is not unshakeable and bit by bit Israel seems bent on proving it.

Deuce: Your arrogance leads you to believe that your hold on US favorability is unshakeable. It is not unshakeable and bit by bit Israel seems bent on proving it.

Hardly, I advocate that Israel cut dependency with the USA as soon possible. The USA is only 4% of the world and time is not on the USA's side. Now that it embraces progressive, PC correct and Islamic values. America is headed to the European model of being taken over and cuckholded into the next Sharia land.. Good luck with that.

As for time? Time is not on the established arab world's side. As you see now, left to their own devices? It creates chaos and murder on scales that would make the Nazis proud.

Now let's throw in a little rufus for you....

With 80 years oil will lose it's status as whale oil did before it....

What happens to OPEC, it's members like Russia and Iran, Qatar and others?

Once oil is no longer the valued commodity it is now? hundreds of millions of moslems across the globe will starve to death.

No, your nation is Israel. You fit the classic definition: people of same ethnicity: a community of people who share a common ethnic origin, culture, historical tradition, and, frequently, language, whether or not they live together in one territory or have their own government

Theodore RooseveltMon Sep 01, 10:23:00 AM EDTThe man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic.

He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American.”

Ironically, you are wrong there as well. Israeli society is rigid and doctrinaire. It needs sclerotic walls to pray to and be surrounded by. The US is pliable, malleable, ever changing and currently the preeminent economic, political and military power in the world. It is a social power. It is also a country that people want to go to. Israel is exclusionary, with few friends and frankly who wants to be an Israeli? What is there about Israeli society that anyone want to emulate?

Israeli society is rigid and doctrinaire. It needs sclerotic walls to pray to and be surrounded by.

spoken like someone without a clue.

But the walls keep the suicidal savages out. The good news savages are like water, seek the easiest path and are now in Gaza, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Europe. Soon the savages will be at the shores of the Americas as the Saudis have warned

Yep the walls that KEEP the savages out of israel protect the jews, arabs, christians, druze, bhai, atheists of Israel.

Deuce: It is also a country that people want to go to. Israel is exclusionary, with few friends and frankly who wants to be an Israeli? What is there about Israeli society that anyone want to emulate?

Since you have never been or and really don't want to KNOW I guess it would be casting pearls before swine to try to sell you on it. But thousands of folks, of all nationalities, races and faiths DIE to get to Israel. No sense in showing you examples, they are on the net aplenty.

You're just set in your bias against the Jewish state and nothing will change that view. You have made it clear that Israel, according to you, is nothing but a colonial occupying racist apartheid state. Forget reality or facts, your world view is set…

Ash, I believe that your assessment on the political breakdown in Iraq is superficially correct but an oversimplification. The differences between Sunnis and Shia are on the fringes of both group. ISIS may vey well be bringing the sane majorities in both sects to understand that their common enemy is intolerance and religious fanaticism on the fringes of their society with ISIS atrocities being the predictable result.

"The current "land grab" that Israel has started was lands always viewed as Israeli in any final settlement."

That is my understanding as well.

rat stole his rich bottom land fair and square. The Cherokee as well stole their land from the Indians.....the Sioux.

It goes without saying Deuce is living on stolen land.

Myself as well.

If you want to look at it that way.

Out my way, we have never found an arrow head, not one artifact, so they really didn't us the area.

No so at my wife's place back east in Ohio. There, with a meadow and a creek coming through, and the Ohio River frontage, all you have to do is put a plow to the ground and you will find some arrowheads. The Indians used to camp there, I imagine.

Cameron is giving a whopper of a talk before Parliament concerning immigration and citizenship.....a bill may be forthcoming to allow the excluding nationals leaving Britain from returning based on several factors.....

Bob,I am so sorry about the Vandals! Maybe this year will be a tad better than last. Progress so to speak! Remember we must have bad and good seasons so we can truly appreciate when one has a really good winning season. What bull! Who in their right mind ever enjoys losing even if we know sometimes we must!!! I feel your pain!!! Go Vandals!!!

What do you think of Dr. Ben Carson? There is much scuttlebutt that he is the current favorite for the Republican party in 2016. I would like to hear your opinion. I still like Romney but I don't think he can win plus he doesn't want to run again and I don't blame him.

How about Putin? I have expected his remarks and I am not surprised but it is still most upsetting. He will succeed I am sure. Our military cut! Egad's the idiot sure has done a great job of being an idiot! ISIS! Obama Care! What's next? An attack of some sort on our soil I fear!

Even bad football is a relief from these dilemmas. .........

I am trying to find my response for you Rufus, but it is tough going....

French, Spanish, Swedish or Serb, the foreigners fighting for both sides in east Ukraine's bloody conflict hail from across Europe and come with a bewildering array of agendas.

The non-mercenaries among them are motivated by causes which can stretch back to the wars in the former Yugoslavia - and even further still, to the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s.

Russia is the elephant in the room, dwarfing any other foreign nationality, although it is increasingly hard to disentangle Russians fighting as volunteers from regular soldiers allegedly deployed on covert missions.

Ukraine's pro-Russian rebels like to talk up their foreign volunteer fighters, presenting them as latter-day International Brigades fighting "fascism". Meanwhile there has been some debate in Kiev on the wisdom of creating a Ukrainian "Foreign Legion".

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana residents will have more than triple the number of health insurance plans to choose from when the federal insurance exchange enrollment period starts in November, according to a state official.

Indiana Department of Insurance attorney Tina Korty told a legislative panel Thursday that some insurers took a “wait-and-see” approach during the first year of the exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.

Nine companies will offer a total of 975 plans - not all will be available in every county - for Indiana residents on the federal exchange, she said. During the 2013-14 period, three companies offered 278 plans, The Times of Munster and the Post-Tribune reported.

“I think a lot of companies were waiting to see how the first year went,” Korty said. “Also were seeing some smaller providers that may offer a policy in only a few counties.”

At this point it’s near-impossible to maintain the fiction that the Affordable Care Act is failing or that the Republicans have a coherent strategy for unmaking it. One by one, Republican-led states are abandoning their opposition to implementing the ACA. Last week, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett became the latest Republican to officially give up the anti-Obamacare ghost when he reached an agreement with federal regulators that will allow the state to expand Medicaid, clearing the way for roughly half a million low-income people to receive health coverage. Shortly afterward, news broke that Tennessee’s Republican governor, Bill Haslam, is working on his own proposal to bring expanded Medicaid funding to the state. Socialism: It creeps.

"AshMon Sep 01, 09:29:00 AM EDTAllen, if Israel were to annex all of Judea and Samaria granting the inhabitants full citizenship a number of problems would arise: How would the demographics work out and what kind of representation in Parliament, given the Israeli parliamentary system, would the Palestinians have? I'm sure the numbers, in the rough, are out there. Also, how would Israel deal with the international condemnation for such a large annexation while dealing with the network of segregated settlements now in existence - Israel in that form would be easily identified as an apartheid state. Egypt , of course, would refuse Gaza leaving the problem intact."

a) demographics: 2/3 Jewish with replacement fertility; 1/3 Arab with slightly higher but declining fertility. Nothing on the horizon indicates a major change demographically or suggests the possibility of an Arab majority. b) “Parliament”: just as now, Arabs can elect whom they please (non-felons). Arab-Israelis already serve and a retired Supreme Court Judge is Arab-Israeli…one man, one vote. With 1/3 of Israel’s citizens available for exploitation, Arab politicians should love the new system. They will acquire the power to build or influence coalitions. c) international condemnation: Polling shows that most Israelis anticipate international condemnation in any event. This last Gaza War was an eye opener – Jews are not allowed self-defense…just like the good old days in Europe 8th C – 20th C, C.E. The neo-Nazis and their fellow travelers have done more to vitalize Zionism than they will ever know. Please, keep screaming, “Jews into the gas” etc. d) segregation: Jews are sectarian and therefore self-segregate, usually around some religious or political institution. There is no law requiring it. Racial discrimination is against the law. Israel contains Jews of every race and ethnicity, who spend their days unmolested. I would add that much segregation had its origin during the illegal annexation of Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem by the Jordanians (1949 -1967) when Jews were expelled from ancient dwellings wholesale. e) Egypt and Gaza: I think you will be surprised about how readily Egypt would take control of the mother hive of so much anti-Egyptian agitation (Muslim Brotherhood). Egypt is waging a war in the Sinai with Israeli aid and is blockading Gaza as well. The single greatest glitch will be amending the peace treaty to allow an unlimited Egyptian military presence in the Sinai. The Chinese will soon offer the Egyptians a deal they cannot refuse. China, Egypt, and Israel are about to become business partners. Yesterday, el-Sisi paid tribute to Sadat!

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) -- Police in the St. Louis suburb where a white officer shot and killed an unarmed 18-year-old have started wearing body cameras.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports ( http://bit.ly/1r0D9m1 ) that Ferguson police began wearing the cameras Saturday. Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson told the newspaper officers had the devices on during a protest march Saturday. The march marked the Aug. 9 shooting death of Michael Brown by Ferguson officer Darren Wilson.

Jackson said the department was given about 50 body cameras by two companies about a week ago. Company representatives offered training to officers Saturday on using the devices that attach to their uniforms and record video and audio. Jackson said each . . . .

The police body cameras were not necessary to convey the destruction wrought by savages. Media caught all that. The damage done will rot in place for years as a testimony to a culture based on hate and a sense of entitlement.

Now that these fine fellows have destroyed the small business owners of their neighborhoods, where are they going to go for food, gasoline, diapers? It's going to be a long walk through gang invested neighborhoods. Enjoy, boys? Oh, and grabbing those running shoes was a wise move; you are going to need them.

This guy and his pals are real Freedom Riders. They probably should stay up north; down here that behavior could cost you. Never bring a pellet gun to a gun fight. Such attitudes explain why gun sales and conceal carry permits are at the current levels.

Just a friendly suggestion to our abused friends: keep your rioting in your own neighborhood. If you foolishly decide to expand your operations, the National Guard will be the least of your worries.

In his heart-wrenching book Survival in Auschwitz, the Italian writer Primo Levi recounts a dramatic anecdote of sheer evil. The Nazi guard snatched away the icicle with which Levi was trying to quench his four-day thirst. When asked why, the guard replied, “Hier ist kein warum” (There is no why here).

Evil has never been absent in the world, but sheer evil has reappeared in the actions – "no why here" – in recent months of two Islamist extremist groups: Hamas in Gaza, and ISIS or ISIL in Iraq and Syria. The extent of the evil of the two groups differs in the number of overt actions, but the intent to fulfill their objectives is similar. Hamas has openly declared its main objective: to kill Jews and eliminate the State of Israel. ISIS has established a brutal Islamic caliphate in the areas it has conquered and is engaged in pursuing a war of jihad.

What is a cause of surprise, indeed amazement, is the different response of the U.N. Human Rights Council to these two evils. The remarkable report of the UNHRC Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria issued on August 27, 2014 chronicles the enormous human cost of the conflict in Syria. Both the Assad regime and the anti-regime forces, above all ISIS, are found guilty of mass atrocities, causing enormous suffering to civilians, and disregard of the basic rights of women and children. Hundreds of civilians die as the fighting continues. The members of ISIS have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including torture, murder, enforced disappearance, and forcible displacement. ISIS has been responsible for executions, amputations, and lashings in public squares, and for training children as young as ten in military camps.

The truth about the horrors of ISIS is clear to all. The truth about Hamas has not been universally accepted. Yet Hamas's relentless aggression against Israeli civilians was publicly revealed on July 9, 2014 by Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian representative to the UNHRC. “The rockets fired from Gaza toward Israel are each and every one a crime against humanity whether they hit or miss, because they are directed at civilian targets. That is why Israel resorted to an attack against Gaza.”

The Hamas attacks, more than 4,000 rockets, and missiles were aimed at Israeli towns and villages, including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa. Though Hamas and its defenders pretend otherwise, all objective journalistic reporting – certainly that from outlets in France, Finland, Italy, and Japan, if not from the New York Times – attests to the fact that Hamas fired much of its weaponry from areas in or close to schools, hospitals, mosques, and even centers for disabled people. It is abundantly clear that women and children were used as human shields to prevent Israeli retaliation. All students of international law would regard the Hamas actions as war crimes or crimes against humanity.

The leaders of Hamas make no apology for these crimes. The former Gaza prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, who bravely sat out the Gaza hostilities in a bunker for 50 days, declared, “We started the war by firing at Haifa, and we finished it by firing on the last day [sic – actually after the ceasefire had been declared] at Haifa.” Not to be outdone, the equally brave Khaled Masaal, head of the Hamas political bureau, who was safe in his residence in Doha, Qatar, boasted on August 28, 2014 of Hamas victory because five million Israelis were forced to go into bomb shelters to avoid Hamas rockets and missiles. In a defiant mood, he observed that “[t]he Zionist enemy committed a second Holocaust in Gaza” and argued that the next operation should use all of the Palestinian capabilities, not just part of them. His conclusion is similar to the mission of ISIS: “the resistance is holy, and weapons are holy.”

Why then did the UNHRC set up a committee to inquire into the actions not of Hamas, but of Israel? There is no why. The UNHRC is systematically biased against Israel. In its Resolution 21/1 of July 23, 2014, passed by a vote of 29 to 1, the UNHRC strongly condemned the failure of Israel as “[t]he occupying power, to end its prolonged occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem.” It also condemned in the strongest terms the “widespread, systematic and gross violations of international human rights and fundamental freedoms arising from Israeli military operations carried out in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) since June 13, 2014.”

The UNHRC therefore set up an independent, international commission of inquiry to investigate the violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the OPT, including East Jerusalem.” The commission may not be concerned with this particular issue, but it would be difficult to ascertain exactly what “fundamental freedoms” existed under the brutal Hamas regime. The mandate of the commission, however, is inquiry into “Israeli war crimes.”

Even the biased UNHRC should pretend to be concerned with impartial inquiry, but the choice of at least one of the three members of the commission leads to some doubt. The chair is William Schabas, a Canadian regarded as an expert in international law, who has had a distinguished academic and professional career. The immediate problem is one of impartiality. In the past, Schabas has been publicly critical of Israeli political policies and its leaders, including Benjamin Netanyahu and Shimon Peres. In 2012, when referring to potential trials of people, he remarked of the Israeli who was at the time in the opposition and not prime minister, “My favorite would be Netanyahu in the dock of the International Criminal Court.”

Regarding the earlier conflict in Gaza in 2008-2009, Schabas remarked that people were upset about the “atrocities” in Gaza – not so much because of Israeli bombardment of facilities there, but “because of our unhappiness about the general political situation there. It is because the people of Palestine are still being denied their right of self-determination.”

No one doubts the intellectual probity and personal integrity of Professor Schabas, nor can he be regarded as anti-Semitic, but in view of his political opinions and statements, can one expect impartial adjudication about the 2014 hostilities? In an interview, he thought it was “inappropriate” to answer whether Hamas was a terrorist organization. That question needed study in “as neutral and objective a manner as possible.” However, he was more certain about the former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Most observers would have seen the Iranian as a fanatical anti-Semite, even questioning his sanity as a denier of the Holocaust, but Schabas saw him only as a “provocative politician.”

The other members of the three-person commission are Doudou Diene of Senegal, and Mary McGowan Davis of the United States. Diene was concerned with the issue of human rights from 2011 to 2014 and generally with issues of racial discrimination and intolerance. Davis was a federal prosecutor in New York City and a justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. She was also involved with the finding of the U.N. mission on the Gaza conflict between December 2008 and January 2009.

The three members of the commission may no doubt take on their task earnestly. In view of the hostility of UNHRC to Israel, a rational assumption is, however, that its report would be critical of Israel. But after the devastating report of the commission on Syria, the three members might well notice the similarity of the evil actions and intent of Hamas and ISIS. Hope for impartiality and justice for Israel springs eternal.

The “Arab Spring” changed seasons with Benghazi. In the eyes of many Americans, the media-hyped chimera of democratic forces seeking freedom from dictatorships vanished with the reported sodomy and murder of our ambassador to Libya.The reality is, the impetus behind the Arab Spring was never really a desire for self-rule as we understand it, but rather a desire for Islamic rule. Each country that fell to that faux-organic sweep of protest shared a trait in common: aside from being brutal dictatorships, they were also secular governments.

This essential point is missed by our major media, who, due to an irrepressible confirmation bias, assume that the only reason to upending a government is to throw off oppression. Their failure to factor the all-encompassing influence of Islam leads inexorably to an inability to comprehend the willingness among many in the Middle East to replace repressive secular regimes with far more repressive Islamist regimes. Surprising as it appears to the Western mind, this frying pan-to-fire behavior is de rigueur in societies that credit the legitimacy of their governments to the seal of approval of their god.

Apprehension of these truths require the West to confront the elephant in the room – the one that political correctness forbids us to address – that being Islam, and its ideology of supremacy.

Terrorism is a tool, not an ideology. "Terrorist" is a functional description of someone who employs this tool in furtherance of their agenda.

The failure in the West to name that agenda is at the root of our failure to defeat it. In the Middle East, that agenda is the re-birth of an Islamic caliphate. In the West, it is a relentless Islamist agenda to mainstream Islamic doctrine in the mind of the average citizen, incrementally positioning Islam as an irreproachable inevitability, declaring any opposition as Islamophobic and anti-religion.

Last year, the Obama administration wanted to nudge the stalled Arab Spring back into motion with the removal of Assad, but their trademark clumsiness attracted the attention of the Russian bear, who quickly turned the feckless Obama into a laughingstock over the whole “red line” fiasco. Now, the rise of ISIS gives Obama the cover to resume his mission to remove Assad. Benghazi halted the Arab Spring, but the beheading of James Foley may revive it.

Already the Pentagon has openly discussed the need to enter Syria in order to pursue and eliminate ISIS fighters. While such a need does exist, it also creates an exploitable circumstance where the scales may be tipped militarily in favor of anti-Assad forces. If Christmas comes early to the White House, then the death or removal of Assad might come about as collateral damage.

Three things previously stood in the way of a successful overthrow of Assad: Vladimir Putin, Iran, and the lack of a direct threat to Americans.

Putin is presently engaged in Ukraine and becoming increasingly isolated for his behavior there. Meanwhile, the clear lack of interest on our part in halting Iran’s nuclear program appears to have given the imprimatur of Obama for the mullahs to develop low-yield nuclear weapons, calming Iranian fears of a Sunni-dominated caliphate on their western border.

Finally, the beheading of Foley and the ominous threats of a very mouthy ISIS leave Americans feeling the heat.

So the question begs for an answer: is ISIS really the overlooked ragtag junior varsity of Obama’s description, or is it a legitimate threat to global stability – a threat of which this administration has been well aware?

First, it is important to understand the intelligence-gathering capabilities of the United States. According to multiple sources within the intelligence community, the growth and development of ISIS was not “overlooked.”

ISIS may have been ignored, but it was certainly well-surveilled. In a world where technology permits us to trace the source of an E. coli outbreak down to the person who failed to wash his hands, it is an impossibility that a major army was gathered, trained, and deployed outside America’s strategic and tactical awareness.

So, given the fact of our foreknowledge, is it fair to ask this administration whether they might be playing a very dangerous game, allowing a brutal force to gather and deploy in order to use the resulting chaos as a pretext to Syrian adventurism?

This particular game will be played on fields well outside the Middle East. Putin has already thrown his lot in with Assad, and his Ukraine adventure notwithstanding, there is nothing to indicate that he would turn a blind eye to American intervention in Syria regardless of the pretext. Putin wants a warm-water port for year-round transport of his energy products, and Assad wants protection from Islamist rebels. This dynamic has not been altered by the rise of ISIS. If anything, Islamist expansionism in Syria and northern Iraq presents as much of an opportunity for adventurism by Putin as by Obama – perhaps more, considering Russia’s geographic proximit

It is entirely possible that Putin could be invited by Assad to assist in the elimination of ISIS, placing American and Russian forces in close proximity to each other. This almost guarantees conflict.

It is indeed a very dangerous game Obama is playing to further the expansion of his Brotherhood friends.

If the above scenario is correct, then the application of significant “kinetic action” by American forces within the borders of Syria will occur almost immediately, setting a precedent for further incursions in weeks to come. Assad will not allow this, and the Arab Spring hawks in the administration are likely giddily hoping he will engage American troops in combat, cementing his fate.

The dynamic of alliance and ambition in that part of the world creates a nearly impenetrable and always unpredictable climate for diplomacy in the Middle East; the willingness of nations to shed their alliances like wet clothing on a cold night ensures that any successes will be short-lived. The only constants in the region are Islam and oil. Until we recognize that every action in the Middle East ultimately relates to one or both, we will continue to react to circumstances rather than anticipate them.

The secular governments swept away by the Obama-supported Arab Spring posed far less of a threat than do the Islamists who have taken their place. Negotiating about oil with secular governments interested in money and prestige was certainly to be preferred over fighting about religion with Islamist governments interested only in their supremacy and our death.

Watch out, world. The match is lit.

Joe Herring writes from Omaha, NE and welcomes visitors to his website at readmorejoe.com. Dr. Mark Christian, a former Muslim, is the executive director of the Global Faith Institute and the vice president of Arabs for Israel.

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.